NASCAR Power Rankings: Christopher Bell rises following Phoenix win

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After a couple of races on the West Coast (Las Vegas and Phoenix), NASCAR heads back East this weekend, although not all the way East as the stop is Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX).

Some drivers will be happy to be a little closer to home, but whether they are closer to home might not mean as much as whether they did well on the first two non-drafting tracks of the season.

Here are my power rankings this week with my analysis of how drivers feel now that they have run two more traditional tracks in the 1.5-mile Las Vegas and 1-mile Phoenix.

1.  Kyle Larson (Last Week: 1)

Larson was dominant at Las Vegas with 181 laps led but had a disappointing Phoenix, where Hendrick Motorsports as a whole was not as fast as it would have liked (Larson started 17th). A lug-nut issue for the team also was frustrating for him at Phoenix as he finished 14th. But he keeps the top spot with no driver dominating both races.

2. Ryan Blaney (LW: 2)

A third at Las Vegas and a fifth at Phoenix has helped Blaney move to the top of the Cup point standings. He didn’t lead a lap in either of those races, so while not a contender for race wins, the Penske driver is getting the best finishes possible.

3. Denny Hamlin (LW: 3)

Hamlin has led at least 10 laps in every race this year and led 84 over the last two races. And yet he finished eighth at Las Vegas and 11th at Phoenix, where he spun when battling for the lead. After Phoenix, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has to feel better about that track than he has in previous years.

4. William Byron (LW: 4)

Byron finished 10th at Las Vegas (where he was strong but was somewhat foiled by a big paper bag that covered the grille of his car, forcing a green-flag pit stop) and then 18th at Phoenix, where he ran in the top five for the majority of the event before getting mired in the middle of the field as part of different pit strategies by teams. The joy of winning the Daytona 500 might have lasted a month, but the Hendrick driver will want to see better finishes soon.

5. Christopher Bell (LW: NR)

Bell rebounded from an awful Las Vegas, where he spun and finished 33rd, by leading 50 laps on his way to the victory at Phoenix. It has been a feast-or-famine year for the JGR driver, who was third at Daytona but then had finishes of 34th and 33rd sandwiched between Daytona and his Phoenix victory.    

6. Ross Chastain (LW: 5)

Chastain is starting to find his rhythm as he left the West Coast with a fourth at Las Vegas and a sixth at Phoenix. The biggest thing about those finishes is the Trackhouse driver started 20th at Vegas and 12th at Phoenix. So far this year, Chastain has not finished worse than he started a race. That’s a good sign.

7. Tyler Reddick (LW: 7)

Reddick arguably had one of the top-two cars at Las Vegas and Phoenix, so he has to feel good about the speed. The finishes? The second at Las Vegas was solid but the 10th at Phoenix after leading 68 laps was disappointing for the 23XI driver.

8.  Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 10)

Back-to-back seventh-place finishes have Truex leaving the West Coast feeling pretty good. There would be days where back-to-back top-10s wouldn’t be much to celebrate for this JGR team, but with the way the team finished 2023 and then opened 2024 with a 15th and a 12th, just getting a couple of finishes near the front should give it some momentum.

9. Ty Gibbs (LW: 9)

Many predicted Gibbs would win his first race this year, and finishes of fifth at Las Vegas and third at Phoenix proved that his first win is getting closer and closer. By the time NASCAR visits these tracks near the end of the 2024 season, Gibbs likely will have a winner sticker on his JGR car.

10. Bubba Wallace (LW: 8)

After starting the season with back-to-back fifth-place finishes, Wallace has struggled the past two races, first with a lug nut issue at Las Vegas (where he had speed but finished 35th) and then being a little bit off and having a blah day in general in finishing 16th at Phoenix.

On the verge: Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell, Daniel Suarez

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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